A multifamily property manager gets a message out to residents within two hours of a water main break and sets expectations before speculation starts.
In a crisis, the story you don’t control gets told by someone else, and they won’t be generous.
The first two hours after a serious event are when a community’s read on what happened, who’s to blame, and what’s being done is easiest to shape and matters most. Communicate early and often, even without every answer, and you set the frame. Wait for complete information, and people are telling themselves stories.
In multifamily, a water main break or an elevator failure is a story before it’s an operational problem. Residents will tell some version of what happened. Your only real choice is whether you’re writing it or you’re a character in someone else’s version.
Good crisis communication doesn’t need perfect information. It needs an honest account of what you know and what you don’t yet, plus a firm commitment to when the next update lands.
Within two hours, she sent the message before the speculation could build, and even without all the answers, she said what she knew, admitted what she didn’t, and committed to the next update. The resident Facebook group stayed quiet, and the Google reviews stayed neutral. Own it in the first two hours or spend the next two weeks correcting someone else’s.
In a crisis, whoever communicates first sets the frame, and every hour of silence after that hands the frame to someone else. — Mike Brewer
Discussion Prompt: Write your crisis communication template today, before you need it. Decide what you’d say in the first two hours of a significant property event, and how you’d lay out what’s known, what isn’t, and what comes next. Have it ready to go.